Two People Went Up to Pray!

Saturday, March 29, 2025

Hos 6:1-6; Lk 18:9-14

Today’s Gospel highlights the vice of self-righteousness.

The text clearly mentions that Jesus addressed this parable to those who considered themselves righteous and despised others. 

As Jesus highlights, there are at least three problems with those who are self-righteous. 

They despise others: The Pharisees, represented by the one in the parable, were so convinced of their righteousness that they appreciated themselves often in comparison with others. The Pharisee evaluates his goodness only in comparison to the rest of humanity and the tax collector behind and not the God in front. When others become our measure, we tend to hate them as we believe we are superior to them in everything. 

They reject their self: Because of their obsession to consider themselves superior to others, they often suffered self-alienation. They were far removed from who they originally were. How sad it is to see that the Pharisee had time to blame humanity and the tax collector but had no time to come out with words of repentance and conversion. A false view of his own self lacks the audacity to hold his self-righteousness accountable even in front of God. 

They eliminate God: Though Jesus begins to say, ‘Two people went up to pray,’ he shows the Pharisee ‘speaking the prayer to himself.’ The way he takes up his position reveals that he was inflating his ego in the name of prayer. In other words, his prayer becomes merely an excuse to manifest how self-righteous he is and not to acknowledge how good God is. By praying a prayer not addressed to God, the Pharisee eliminates God, and by extension, others too. 

Let us pray that we may always be humble to draw inspiration from God’s goodness. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar